


Smile

by CarmenImbrium



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: F/M, Who doesn't love angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-09
Updated: 2016-02-09
Packaged: 2018-05-19 10:20:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5963773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CarmenImbrium/pseuds/CarmenImbrium
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Lucy waits for Natsu to wake up after his encounter with Zeref.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Smile

**Author's Note:**

> I imagine this takes place between chapters 469 and 470.

Lucy isn't sure how long she's been sitting there in the infirmary. The hard wooden back of the chair presses into her shoulder blades, but she's long past the point of caring. Her fingers play absently with the edge of the blanket, the tiny beginnings of frayed threads rubbing roughly against her fingertips. The rise and fall of his chest, shallow and slow, feels in time with her heartbeat and her hope. She desperately wants to know what happened during the battle, what exactly caused his (and, by extension, her) pain, but Happy won't talk; he seems to still be processing the day himself. So she's left to sit and wonder, staring sadly at the slightly pained expression on Natsu's sleeping face. The tears she'd shed earlier in the day have dried, and the tracks they left feel crusty and irritating on her cheeks, but she can't bring herself to let go of the boy's hand long enough to wipe them away. She scoots the chair backwards and leans forward against the side of the bed, resting her chin on her free hand, never taking her eyes off his face. "What were you thinking, you idiot?" she says softly, trying and failing to fight back fresh tears. "Going off on your own to face Zeref without even telling us where you were going? We were worried sick about you. _I_ was worried sick about you. You could've died, and then what would I have done? You're my best friend, Natsu, and you just came back to me. I don't want to lose you again." She squeezes his hand and pulls it closer to her, stroking her thumb gently against his palm. "Don't leave me alone again. Please, Natsu, I don't want to be alone again." Tears pool in her eyes again, and her trembling hand reaches up to brush lightly against his cheek, being careful to avoid the bandage. "What made you think you had to do this alone? Everything's better when we're together, isn't it?" She sobs, sitting up and wiping her eyes on a corner of the blanket. "So why couldn't you trust me enough to let me help you? Why couldn't you trust me enough to even tell me what you were doing? Yes, I would've tried to stop you, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't have come with you!" The tears cloud her vision and burn her eyes, so she leans her head back down and blinks them away, still unwilling to let him go. "Don't think for a second that I wouldn't have come with you." She presses her cheek into the blanket, the top of her head just touching his side, and shifts the hand holding his to press two fingers against his faint pulse.

Her mind wanders and floods with memories. That afternoon in Hargeon, when he broke through the crowd and broke the spell on her, and the day after, when he brought her to Fairy Tail. Their first real job together, the one he picked out specifically because she would be an asset. The Phantom Lord incident, when she jumped from her cell, knowing he'd be there to catch her, and he was. Meeting their other selves in Edolas. Their battle against Kain Hikaru during the S-Class Trials. After she was freed from the Infinity Clock, when she fell from the sky and he caught her again. The first day of the Grand Magic Games, how he proud he was of her despite her defeat, and a few days later, how he swore to protect her future. All those nights she'd kicked him out of her apartment, only for him and Happy to reappear in her bed the next morning as though they'd never left. Every stupid little thing he ever did just for the sake of making her smile. And his own smile, wide and wild, bright as the fire that ran through his veins. _You're an idiot, and you're crazy and reckless and stupid,_ she pleads silently, her eyes focusing on the slight downturn of the corners of his mouth, _but I'll forgive you, I'll forgive everything, as long as I get to see you smile again._


End file.
